Impressed

[Phillip Palacios]

After using an HVX200 with and without various lens adapters (Redrock and Cinivate) as well as H1 and HD100's and Ex1 and Ex3's I must say this little camera is great. No backfocus issues to contend with, no vignette, barley any CA (L series glass) And the light requirements are VERY freeing.
Form factor isn't a factor on sticks, neither is the rolling shutter. I run sync sound anyway so that's not an issue. I shot a series of 30sec spots this week for a local eye care company that the director wanted a very dramatic/moody feel. The 7D held it together very nicely, WAY more dynamic range than my personal camera (HVX200) I will be bidding this in on jobs in the future whenever I can.

The images are completely ungraded screen grabs. We used the SmallHD monitor which was for the price, great.

[Richard Gooderick]

These grabs look great.
Very interesting to hear that you are having success using the camera for this kind of work.
Would you rate the monitor as essential?

[Dale Baglo]

What lens did you use?

[Phillip Palacios]

We used a 24-70 2.8 and a 20 2.8. On the interviews I had my AC go to f2.8 but for any action I tried to keep it around f4 to get a little more of the action in focus.

Field monitors are VERY helpful, I wouldn't call them essential as long as you are meticulous in details such as lighting and focus, however we needed three monitors: one for me and my camera crew, one for director, and one for the AD and makeup artist.

Our solution was to run the HDMI out of the 7D and into a Matrox on a Macbook Pro, so the director could watch on the laptop. The the Matrox sent signal to our DP1 monitor and a Sony production monitor.

I find the naysayers funny because 5 years ago this kind of image wasn't available under $10k. And to the end audience it doesn't matter if there is a hint of rolling shutter, a little aliasing, etc... We spend so much time looking at pixels it's easy to forget that 90% of the viewers are just going to see a pretty picture no matter what it was shoot on.

[Brian Luce]

How do you run three monitors from it?

[Phillip Palacios]

"Our solution was to run the HDMI out of the 7D and into a Matrox on a Macbook Pro, so the director could watch on the laptop. The the Matrox sent signal to our DP1 monitor and a Sony production monitor."

The director had to watch in the log/capture window (Final Cut Pro) set to non-controlable device.

[Richard Gooderick]

Thanks.
Very helpful.

[Ryan Mitchell]

Great looking images, Phillip!

Per the SmallHD monitor - I'm assuming you used that to judge focus. Did you find it challenging to determine focus on the SmallHD alone (and without peaking) or was it adequate? Did you use tape to measure distance to help with focus or was it completely by eye on the monitor? I've been wondering about a monitor as an addition to the 7D to help with focus given how easy it could be to make the image soft with the built-in LCD alone, and have been wondering about the Marshall 70P vs. SmallHD options, especially considering the non-HD (480p) resolution of the 70P - and if that wouldn't be enough to judge focus critically on the 7D...

[Phillip Palacios]

Focusing was simple on the SmallHD, really high res. I did have to use the magnification button on the camera on wide shots, but this was probably because our AD wanted lens data for her notation and we sent the lens data with the video signal (not sure what this is called on canon cameras) So we were looking at a letterboxed 4:3 image within a 16x9 video stream (the camera still sends a 16x9 image, but there's the letterboxed and pillarboxed effect) If you don't send the lens data, it's a regular 16x9 image.

[Ryan Mitchell]

Thanks Phillip. Which smallHD monitor model did you use? Do you have any experience with that same monitor outside in brighter light? Any thoughts / issues there? You might push me over the edge to the smallHD instead of the Marshall, primarily due to price. However the marshalls capabilities around peaking and exposure display would be a real boon for both the 7d and my ex1...

[Phillip Palacios]

I don't have any experience with the DP1 outside yet as I've been renting it for various shoots, and I don't personally own it. The sunshade integration with the monitor is supurb though (I did test it out indoors) I am headed to Phoenix on a shoot on Friday and will be doing some outdoor shots so I will be able to tell you more then. As far as Marshall monitors go, not sure. The last Marshall I used was the 7" HDSDI monitor which was VERY hard to use outdoors, and for that matter not that great of an image. Obviously that was a monitor that came out 3ish years ago so a lot has changed. Marshall is a standby name for a reason, and I am sure they are making a good product. I'll report on the outdoor performance next week when I am back from Phoenix.
As far as focus, I never felt the need to measure out the focal distance. And I was very sure of my focus 90% of the time, the other 10% is when I used the 7D's built in focus assist. There the Marshall has the upper hand, focus assist WHILE recording. But is that worth double the price of the SmallHD?... Only you can judge the ROI for your business.

[Phillip Palacios]

So Phoenix went well. The 7D was exactly what we expected going into it, pretty. Is there are much detail as a "pro" HD camera? no. Does it really matter? no. The perceived detail when the DoF is 1'-2' is perfect. Especially for web. The DP1 worked flawlessly, and even though I did not use the sunshade outdoors it work OK as long as I was in the shade. One of the DP1's batteries stopped working but we had the AC adapter as well so while the one working battery was charging we would run off of AC. The battery I believe is under warranty so probably will be replaced.

I have to say that despite the unprofessional look of the actual camera, the images speak for themselves. Way more pleasing than the HVX ever was.

[Phillip Palacios]

Landscapes is where the lack of resolving power starts to be a disadvantage. HOWEVER the HVX would be about the same as these, with less dynamic range.

[Ryan Mitchell]

Phillip - really great images once again - I'm impressed with your lighting as well in everything you've put up so far, especially the first set of images. Great soft lighting but still gives it the dramatic edge you were looking for - and if those are ungraded images, that's impressive. I shoot the 7D like I shoot my EX1 - flat as hell - knowing that I'm going to jack with the color all over the place in post and I want as many options as possible in post. Which picture profile were you using on the 7D, and do you find it limiting to grade in post?

For the images with what appears to be a spot for a drill of some sort - I have a question about the image with the shallow DOF on the man looking intently while he's working and the blue light on the underside of his hand (I think it's image 4 of 7). It appears that your critical focus was on the underside of his hand where the blue light landed. Your DOF was relatively shallow as it looks to me like the front side of his hand (closest to the camera) is slightly soft and obviously you meant to throw the rest of the man out of focus and really bring the viewer to focus on the tool itself.

My question for you is this: given your relatively shallow DOF that I believe was by design, did you intend to focus on that small part of the underside of his hand where the light from the tool was shining, or were you moving your focus along, perhaps, and that's just the screen that you grabbed from the video? And the real crux of the question (finally! :) is whether the DP1 was sufficient with its resolution for dialing in your focus on what appears to be that 1" of his hand that you wanted?

[Phillip Palacios]

I believe the image you were talking about is the one where we were trying to highlight the LED light that illuminates whatever you are working on. So probably yes the focus was intentional.
For wide shots the DP1 is a little tough to use, but for anything at 35mm more it is actually really easy. The biggest hurdle we had was the absence of a follow focus, as the jib shots were pretty tricky to get it just right without it.
Thanks for the compliment, my team did a really good job getting the look I was going for, and yes the footage is totally ungraded. I like to try and shoot as close to the final look as I can...we have different ways of doing the same thing:)
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